Stop drive-through mastecomies!

I'm not much for signing petitions, because so many I get in email are specious at best. However, this one is different.

Having health issues myself, I know the machinations insurance companies go through to cover as little as possible, as cheaply as possible. For all the complaining people do about the cost of health care in the US, it cannot be blamed on doctors. I blame lawyers, insurance companies, drug manufacturers and especially Congress. Why do our Congress critters have no-expense-spared no-deductible for-life healthcare, but when the rest of us think we deserve the same, the "OMG IT'S SOCIALIST MEDICINE" song starts? Why are they more interested in what lobbyists have on their agenda than the needs of their constituents? At least the insurance companies and lawyers are transparent about being all about the Benjamins.

Our Queenee had a modified radical mastectomy several years ago. She was fortunate to be in the hospital for a couple days (thanks to her doctor raising hell and refusing to release her), and really could have used one more. Even then, the insurance companies were fighting to get women in and out the same day. Obviously nobody pushing for drive-through mastectomies has ever had one, or has ever had to tend to someone who has had one. As the saying goes, if men could get pregnant, the right to a safe abortion would have been written into the Bill of Rights. A reasonable recovery time from a mastectomy is in the same ballpark.

Please, if you are reading this, sign the petition. I actually used my real name and address, which those of you who know me will appreciate is something I *never* do, ever.

My comments were as follows:

My mother had a mastectomy and was lucky enough to be in the hospital for two days - three would have been MUCH better for her. There is absolutely NO reason other than financial for major surgery being designated as an outpatient procedure. For the men, and I'm willing to bet it is men, making these decisions, imagine losing your testicles to cancer and being told you have to go home the same day. Swelling, pain, drainage? So what. You deal with it.

How many people think that scenario would ever happen?

My ex is a veterinarian. He would never send a female dog home after a mastectomy, not a chance in the world. Why should women be treated with less regard than that?

Where are the "compassionate" conservatives now? Counting their tax-break money? Looking for reds under every Shrub?

Oh, and for the *holes who whine about how men get breast cancer too, go have a look at the statistics. Then tell me how society values men for their breasts. Then justify your ignorance.

Sign the petition for yourself, or your wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, niece, cousin, friend or lover. Send a message to the lawyers and insurance company actuaries and Congress that we want what we pay for.